Finally, an official opening date for the Bottom Lounge

After the long-awaited relocation and re-invention of the Bottom Lounge was first touted in this blog in early March, the inevitable unforeseen delays -- inevitable, that is, when dealing with the city of Chicago -- torpedoed the initial plan to open on St. Patrick's Day.

Now comes word that what promises to be one of the city's best new music venues will finally kick things off at its new location at 1375 Lake St. on May 2nd with a gig by... Urge Overkill.

O.K., so it's not exactly the most auspicious of debuts. (No slight to Urge, it's just that it's been a long, long time since the group was anywhere near the saturation point of hepness, if it ever was.)

But promoters MP Productions are listing several other promising dates in the coming weeks, including MU330 (May 9), a Jon Langford-spearheaded benefit for the Illinois Campaign Against the Death Penalty
(May 17), Thrones, featuring former members of Earth and the Melvins (May 26), emo super heroes Jermy Enigk and Damien Jurado (May 28) and the killer "Grunge lives!" double bill of Mudhoney and Easy Action (May 30).